So we are going to read right
through 2nd Timothy. As you know a few weeks ago I
had to speak at the funeral of Helen Rowe in Bermagui. It's
a serious lesson about the gospel to be speaking to a crowd of
people and have someone who's gone from this world and gone
to her reward before you. Once when I was preaching in
India and the church had big doors that were open at the back
of it and as I was speaking there, there was a Hindu funeral service,
funeral procession went by and they had the the body carried
all the garlands over it and this bamboo structure, litter
that they carried it on and as I was speaking I was looking
at a group of people here and on the road this funeral wound
its way around and across the road and directly in my sight
was the place where they burned the bodies. So we saw this wailing
crowd going, we saw the smoke rise and And the Gospel becomes
very real and very personal and very powerful. And today we are
actually going to look at 2 Timothy. And the Gospel for Paul is very
real and very powerful. And this is a man who is now
in prison in Rome. You can probably almost hear
the executioner sharpening his axe to sever his head from his
body. And in verse 6 of chapter 4,
he says, For I am already being poured out as a drink offering,
and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good
fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith, Henceforth
there is laid up for me the Crown of Righteousness, which the Lord,
the Righteous Judge, will award to me on that day, and not only
to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing." And so
Paul is dying, he knows that he's going to be executed. He's
been told by God, as Peter was, the time for his departure, his
exodus, is upon him. And he's writing to his young
friend, his son in the faith. And so the letter of 2nd Timothy
is a personal letter and it's a pastoral letter and it's a
practical letter. And now Paul is aware of the
fact that Timothy has had to do battle for the Gospel in Ephesus,
as Paul did. And one of the most moving passages
in the Scriptures is in Acts 20, and we'll just read Paul's
prophecy about the church that young Timothy was a pastor. So if you turn in your Bibles
to Acts 20, we'll just lay some of the background. in Acts 20, from my leaders,
he sent to Ephesus and called for the elders of the church.
And when they had come to him, he said to them, You know from
the first day that I came to Asia, in what manner I always
lived among you, serving the Lord with all humility, with
many tears and trials which happened to me by the plotting of the
Jews. The Jews, the same Judaizers
that were just down the road in Galatia. How I kept back nothing
that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you and taught you publicly
and from house to house, testifying to the Jews and also to the Greeks,
repentance towards God. and faith toward our Lord Jesus
Christ. And see, now I go bound in the
Spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that will happen to
me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city,
saying that chains and tribulations await me. But none of these things
move me. Nor do I count my life dear to
myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry
which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel
of the grace of God. And indeed now I know that you
all, among whom I have gone preaching the Kingdom of God, will see
my face no more. Therefore I testify to you this
day that I am innocent of the blood of all men, for I have
not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God, Therefore
take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the
Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the Church of God,
which he purchased with his own blood. For this I know that after
my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing
the flock. Also from among yourselves men
will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples
after themselves. Therefore watch and remember
that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone, night
and day with tears. So now brethren I commend you
to God and to the word of his grace which is able to build
you up and give you an inheritance amongst all those who are sanctified. I have coveted no one's silver
or gold or apparel. Yes, you yourselves know that
these hands have provided for my necessities and for those
who are with me. I have shown you in every way
by labouring like this that you must support the weak and remember
the words of the Lord Jesus that he said, it is more blessed to
give And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed
with them all. Then they all wept freely and
fell on Paul's neck and kissed him, sorrowing most of all for
the words which he spoke, that they would see his face no more. And they accompanied him to the
ship. Paul is a man of great passion,
a man in whom the grace of God and the Gospel was powerful. His own testimony is that he
was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor and a violent man. A man who
hated God and hated his people. A man who was extraordinarily
moral. In Philippians 3 he says of himself
that as for legalistic righteousness, the righteousness that you get
by your activities under the Mosaic Law, he said he was And
now he saw, when he met the Lord, that all of that which he thought
was his righteousness was nothing but dung. And so he writes to
Timothy, knowing what was going to happen in the church in Ephesus. Knowing that that prophecy in
Acts 20 had been fulfilled in a sense in his time and was continuing
to be fulfilled. And if you read Revelation 20
you see, Revelation 3 you find that the Ephesian church had
done so many things well but they had forgotten their first
love. And I suspect that's what Paul,
as much as anything, is wanting to stir up in Timothy. That first
love that people feel when they meet the Lord Jesus, when they
meet themselves and they meet the Lord in His glory. So the
Ephesian church was doctrinally sound, but he had one thing against
them. They had left their first love.
And so this is Paul's letter, his last will and testament.
And it's just a powerful letter. I just thought if you could read
along with me, I'll read and you can follow along. And we'll
just read all of this letter and then I'll go back and highlight
some of the things. And I'll just keep praying that
all of what the scriptures say about the Word of God is true
of the Word who was made flesh. The Word of God is living and
it's active and it's powerful. The Lord Jesus is living and
active and powerful. Second Timothy chapter 1. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus
by the will of God according to the promise of life that is
in Christ Jesus. To Timothy, my beloved child,
grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our
Lord. I thank God whom I serve, as
did my ancestors, with a clear conscience, as I remember you
constantly in my prayers, night and day. As I remember your tears,
I long to see you, that I may be filled with joy. I am reminded
of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother
Lois and your mother Eunice, and now, I am sure, dwells in
you as well. For this reason I remind you
to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through
the laying on of my hands. For God gave us a spirit, not
of fear, but of power and love and self-control. Therefore do
not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me, his
prisoner. but share in suffering for the
Gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us with a
holy calling, not because of our works, but because of His
own purpose and grace, which He gave us in Christ Jesus before
the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the
appearing of our Saviour, Christ Jesus. who abolished death and
brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel,
for which I was appointed a preacher, an apostle and teacher, which
is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know
whom I have believed, and I am convinced that He is able to
guard until that day what has been entrusted to me. Follow,
hold fast the pattern of sound words that you have heard from
me in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus by the Holy
Spirit who dwells within us. Guard the good deposit entrusted
to you. You are aware that all who are
in Asia turned away from me, among whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes. May the Lord grant mercy to the
household of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me and was
not ashamed of my chains. But when he arrived in Rome,
he searched for me earnestly and found me. May the Lord grant
him to find mercy from the Lord on that day, and you will know
all the service he rendered at Ephesus. You then, my child,
be strengthened in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And
what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses,
entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. Share in suffering as a good
soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in
civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who
enlisted him. An athlete is not crowned unless
he competes according to the rules. It is the hard-working
farmer who ought to have the first share of the cross. Think
over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in
everything. Remember Jesus Christ, risen
from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel,
for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But
the word of God is not bound. Therefore I endure everything
for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation
that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. The saying is
trustworthy. For if we have died with Him,
we will also live with Him. If we endure, we will also reign
with Him. If we deny Him, He will also
deny us. If we are faithless, He remains
faithful, for He cannot deny Himself. Remind them of these
things, and charge them before God not to quarrel about words,
which does no good, but only ruins the hearers. Do your best
to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has
no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. But
avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more
and more ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and
Philetus. who have swerved from the truth,
saying that the resurrection has already happened, they are
upsetting the faith of some. But God's firm foundation stands,
bearing this seal. The Lord knows those who are
His. And let everyone who names the
name of the Lord depart from iniquity. Now in a great house
there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of
wood and clay, some for honourable use, some for dishonourable.
Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonourable,
he will be a vessel for honourable use, set apart as holy, useful
to the master of the house, ready for every good work. So flee
youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love and
peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Have nothing to do with foolish,
ignorant controversies. You know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord's servant must not
be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring
evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps
grant them repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth.
And they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of
the devil after being captured by him to do his will. But understand
this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty.
For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud,
arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful,
unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control,
brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit. Lovers of pleasure rather than
lovers of God. And if you thought that was talking
about the world, read the next line. Having the appearance of
godliness. It's talking about people who
claim to be Christians, but denying its power, denying the Gospel.
Avoid such people. For among them are those who
creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sin,
sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and
never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth, just as Jannes
and Jambres opposed Moses. So these men opposed the truth,
men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. But they
will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as
was that of those two men." You, however, have followed my teaching,
my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love,
my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened
to me at Antioch, at Iconium and at Lystra, which persecutions
I endured, yet from them all the Lord rescued me. Indeed,
all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be
persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go from bad
to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue
in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing
from whom you learned it. and how from childhood you have
been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to make
you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture
is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for
correction and for training in righteousness. That a man of
God may be competent, equipped for every good work, I charge
you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge
the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom,
preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, reprove,
rebuke and exhort with complete patience and teaching. For the
time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but
having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers
to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening
to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be
sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist,
fulfil your ministry. For I am already being poured
out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has
come. I have fought the good fight,
I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there
is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord,
the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day. And not only
to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing. Do your
best to come to me soon, for Demas, in love with this present
world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia,
Titus to Dalmatia. Leucolon is with me. Get Mark
and bring him with you for he is very useful to me for ministry. Tychicus I have sent back to
Ephesus. When you come bring the cloak
that I left with Carpus at Troas. Also the books and above all
the parchments. Alexander the coppersmith did
me great harm. The Lord will repay him according
to his deeds. Beware of him yourself for he
strongly opposed our message. At my first defence, no one came
to stand by me, but all deserted me, may it not be charged against
them. But the Lord stood by me. and
strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully
proclaimed, and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued
from the lion's mouth. The Lord will rescue me from
every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom.
To Him be the glory for ever and ever. Amen. Great Prisca
and Aquila, and the household of Anesophorus. Erastus remained
at Corinth, and I left Trophimus, who was ill, at Miletus. Do your
best to come before winter. Eubulus sends greetings to you,
as do Pudens, and Linus, and Claudia, and all the brothers. The Lord be with your spirit.
Grace be with you. So as we come back and just look
briefly again at some significant parts of this amazing letter,
as Paul finishes, it's just remarkable how much he is centred on others
and not himself. And it's remarkable how much how personal this letter is and
how much he feels deeply and feels emotionally both the tears
of Timothy and his own tears about what's happening. But like
God's children throughout the scriptures, they die having been
comforted and cared for by God. So often people wonder about
the grace that they'll need at the time of their death. But
the grace that God gives us is sufficient for the needs of the
time that we have. And when God's children come
to that time, it's a time when God will make himself personally
and really and powerfully manifest in their lives. We often quote
those wonderful words that David said as he faced death. And he looked around at his house,
looked at his family, unbelievers, so many tragic, tragic things. brothers raping sisters, a brother
usurping his authority and sleeping with his wives in public and
then meeting a sad and tragic death. David's own sins matching
David's own extraordinary works. And he looked around and he said,
although my house is not so with God, my house is not as I would
have it, yet He has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered
in all things and secure. He looks to God and His sovereignty,
His powerful omnipotence, and He says, this, for this, God's
eternal purposes, is all my salvation and all my desire. Moses at the end of his life
in Deuteronomy 33 said things which are very similar. He said,
there is no one like the God of Jeshurun. who rides the heavens to help
you, and in his excellency on the clouds. The eternal God is
your refuge, and underneath, girding God's people through
all of the trials of this life, underneath are the everlasting
arms. He will thrust out the enemy
from before you and will say, destroy. Then Israel shall dwell
in safety, the fountain of Jacob alone in the land of grain and
new wines. His heavens shall also drop dew. Happy are you, O Israel, who
is like you, a people saved by the Lord, the shield of your
help. and the sword of your majesty,
your enemies shall submit to you and you shall tread down
their high places." And so in 2nd Timothy we actually have
Paul's dying words. And his big encouragement to
Timothy is to stay with the gospel. Preach the Gospel. Don't be moved
from the Gospel. The Gospel which is just the
declaration of what God has done. It's a declaration. It's not
a proposition. It's not an offer. It's not an
invitation for men to do something. It's not even a promise that
God will do something. It's not good advice. It's a
declaration of salvation done. Declaration of salvation finished. A declaration of the deity of
our Lord Jesus. A declaration of His infinite
eternal love for His people. A love that is not based on their
activities, but based on His activities. a righteousness that
they have before God. The wonder of having sins taken
away with justice so that God is both just and the justifier
of those who have faith. Declaring simply and powerfully
the Gospel as it's declared by all of God's children in this
book is a promise that in this world you will be misunderstood. A promise that in this world
you will suffer. A suffering that is specially
tailored by God for each of His children. And the way to avoid
suffering is simple. All you have to do to avoid suffering
is to compromise. It's as simple as that, isn't
it? Tolerant, nice, compromise. Last week I caught up with a
friend of mine who just a couple of weeks ago nearly died in Nowra
Hospital. And she was in there with a fever
and her body wasting away and the doctors were completely baffled
by what was happening to her. She was within 24 hours of dying
because her liver had failed and was failing terribly and
her kidneys and other parts of her body were in terrible distress. And through a series of remarkable,
providential, miraculous, wonderful events, someone discovered that
the cause of her problem might have been a paralysis tick. And
sure enough, when they examined her, they did find that there
was a tick. on her back and she was one of the very rare people
that reacted appallingly to this tick. And if it hadn't been removed
within 24 hours she would have been dead. The reason I tell
the story of course is to say isn't God amazing and providentially
works in all things in amazing ways. But the real point of what
I want to say from that story is that in every area of life
We expect people to do things precisely. We expect doctors,
as human as they are, to get it right. We go to an accountant,
we expect him to be faithful and true. We go to a real estate
agent and we expect Alex to do the things that he should do
for us. We go and buy batteries from Norm and we want Norm to
give us sound advice about batteries. In every area of life except
one, truth matters enormously. And that one area of life, which
for most people, truth doesn't matter, is the one area of life
that matters most of all. Your eternal salvation depends
upon truth. The glory of God depends upon
truth. And yet, standing for the truth
in this world is going to get you persecuted. Do you stand
for the truth, Timothy? Do you stand for the truth, Shelhaven
Gospel Church? Or do we tolerate things that
will bring us comfort and ease and cause us to turn away from
the Gospel? So there are instructions for
Timothy, aren't there? You follow in verse 13 of chapter
1, you hold fast to the pattern of sound words that you've heard
from me. You hold fast to the apostolic
gospel, Timothy. This declaration, this gospel
that has been proclaimed in those amazing verses that we looked
at a couple of weeks ago. It's the Gospel that causes suffering,
but it's the testimony about our Lord. The Gospel is about
a person. It's the declaration of the person
and nature of the Lord Jesus. It's the testimony about our
Lord in verse 8. And it causes sufferings. God
will bring suffering to his people by his ordained purposes for
declaring the Gospel. In verse 9, we can't skip over
these amazing words. It's God who has saved us. and
called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, not
because of our works, but because of His purpose and grace which
He gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began. So Paul is declaring
a salvation that was finished in eternity when the Lord Jesus
took 100% responsibility to take 100% of his bride scattered throughout
this world. He took full responsibility for
their sins, for their righteousness, for their sanctification, to
take them to glory. And the Gospel, the Gospel that
we declare is the cause that God uses in this world to make
that manifest, to reveal it. As we so often say, we can close
all these curtains and we open them up and it reveals the mountains
out there. It doesn't create the mountains,
it just reveals the mountains. The Gospel reveals something
done. It reveals who our Lord Jesus
is. It reveals both the appearing
of our Lord Jesus in time, but also it reveals the appearing
of our Lord Jesus to each of his people individually, personally
and powerfully. And without that meeting between
you and God, between sinners who know themselves to be sinners
and God in all of His holiness and His majesty and His sovereignty
and His glory. There is no salvation. We keep warning people, don't
play games with God. My friend could have been given
a Panadol for her headaches. She could have been given some
morphine. She could have been given all sorts of things by
the doctors. But there was one thing necessary to save her life. That tick had to be removed.
That source of poison infection in her body had to be taken away. This Christ Jesus has abolished
death. and brought life and immortality
to light. It reveals what Christ has done. It reveals something finished. And because for Paul and all
of God's children, death has been abolished. It's finished. It has no sting. It has no power. Paul was aware of the fact that
when the sawed, cut his neck and severed his head from his
body. He was not going to die, his body was going to die, but
instantly he would have been with the Lord in glory. Which
is why he is prepared to suffer as he does in verse 12. That's
why he is prepared to not be ashamed. And the solution to
Christians standing firm is in verse 12. For I know whom I have
believed. I know Him. This is eternal life,
says the Lord Jesus in John 17.3, that you know God, the Father,
and you know Jesus Christ whom He has sent. And he's convinced
that Jesus is able to guard. what has been entrusted to me. I just wanted to briefly look at
the things that have come into the life of this blaspheming,
persecuting, violent man. He's now an old man, a deserted
man, a man on death row. And we just quickly look at the
things that happened to God's people because of Christ Jesus. In verse 1, chapter 1, there
is the promise of life, eternal life now, spiritual life it must
be. And this eternal life and this
spiritual life is being brought to light by the Gospel. It's
in Christ Jesus. To look for anything in this
world, in spiritual life, outside of Christ Jesus and separate
from this Word, is to be chasing after shadows. As we saw in verse
9, in Christ Jesus, God's children were saved. God's children were
called in Christ Jesus with a holy calling from a holy God. God's
children have been made aware of the fact that all things in
their lives and all things in all of history can only ever
happen according to God's eternal purposes and grace. And all of this is established
for us, established for all time in the counsels of God before
the world began. And the wonderful good news is
that the things that have been established in eternity are not
going to be affected by the things that we see coming to pass in
time. God saved his people before the
foundation of the world. Hebrews 4 says that it was finished,
God's works were finished and he's taken his rest. Now it is
made manifest, our Lord Jesus sits, sits on the throne of this
universe in heaven. And that's why he can say to
Timothy that you will suffer as I have, but you will hold
fast. And you are to guard this Gospel. You are to be zealous as a soldier,
guarding the fortress. Guard the Gospel. Don't let the
Gospel be tapped with. Suffer the suffering, but don't
let the glory of the Lord Jesus fall to the ground. So you follow,
you hold fast. And you hold fast to a pattern.
Paul's life is a pattern for believers. Paul's doctrine is
a pattern for us. It's an outline, it's a sketch
to be followed. In verse 13 we have the two answers
to all of the questions that we get so often about what God's
children are to do in response. Continually we are asked, surely
there must be a response. These two words that come with
grace from Christ Jesus and only operate in association with Jesus
are simply faith and love. In any situation, if you need
to know what you have to do, is it acting in faith? Romans
14 says that anything that does not come from faith is sin. Is it acting in faith? Is it
acting in love? The wonderful news of verse 13
is that these things are in Christ Jesus. They are in us as we are
associated with Him. They are in Christ Jesus. In
chapter 2, Paul is encouraging his son in
the faith, Timothy, to be strengthened in the grace that is in Christ
Jesus. To be strengthened in grace is
to be continually reminded that we stand before God always on
the basis of who the Lord Jesus is. To grow in grace, as we so
often say, is to grow more and more aware of our frailty and
more and more aware of Christ's sufficiency. The religious world
wants people to grow in themselves and become stronger in themselves.
God's children grow in grace and God's children are strengthened
in grace. And in Christ Jesus, in verse
10 of chapter 2, is that they obtain the salvation that's in
Christ Jesus. It's all in Christ Jesus. Eternal
glory is in Christ Jesus. In 3 verse 12, all who desire
to live a godly, to live a devout life, to live a life devoted
to Christ, will be persecuted. The promise of God is that you
will be persecuted. And in that persecution, you
will suffer. You will suffer because of your
love for the Lord Jesus. You will suffer because of your
love for the people around you. But in the midst of that suffering
you will know the reality of the presence of the Lord Jesus. There's a story told of one of
the martyrs in the days of Bloody Mary and he promised to give
a signal with his finger to say to the people watching him burn
that the Lord was there and comforted him. And his friends watched
on as he burnt and burnt and burnt and more of his body was
burnt away and he just looked like a skeleton. hanging there. And as they were
about to give up in despair, this man dying and burning raised
his little finger, raised his finger to say, the Lord's honoured
his promise to me. I'm suffering, but if you knew
what it was like to have the Lord Jesus standing beside you,
you'd be jealous you'd want to swap places with me. Such is
the glory of God. That suffering is appointed by
God, it's by His power. And it causes God's children
in 3.15 to make His people wise for salvation
through faith. Through the faith which is in
Christ Jesus. Our faith is not in our faith. Our faith is in the Lord Jesus. It's the faithfulness of the
Lord Jesus. And Paul's reminding Timothy
that this suffering will happen from within the family of believers
at times. Paul was a man deserted and abandoned
me. Abandoned. Verse 16 of Chapter
4. At my first distence no one came
to stand by me, but all deserved me. Some like Dinas had deserted
him and gone back to the world. It's a humbling thing, isn't
it, that for these apostles Worked and worked faithfully
alongside people for some considerable time, only to find that these
people who stood by them, shoulder to shoulder for the Gospel, end
up being like the demons of this world. It's a salutary lesson
for us. that in scripture we have so
many of these warnings. God will keep his people faithful
to the end. At the end of the day, it's what
is the end that you desire. What is the end that the Lord
has laid before us all? This world is passing away. Our
lives flash by us. Another year has gone. And in
12 months time it will seem like the blink of an eye when we say,
yet another year has gone by. The solution for Christians is
that we fix our eyes on the Lord Jesus. We just look ahead, beyond
all the things that are happening in this world, and we look at
this world through the eyes of faith. We look at this world
as a place of a spiritual battleground. A place where God has scattered
his seed. Where God who reigns over all
the things of this universe is going to care and protect and
preserve each one of his people. The Lord stood by me. Is that your testimony? Does
the Lord stand by you? Does the Lord give you strength?
We must keep remembering that spiritual strength and spiritual
understanding are not characteristics of human nature. They are something
that God gives. Something that God gives at a
time. The Lord took his stand beside
Paul. There was no one else there,
but the Lord took his stand. He stood by to help and to strengthen
him. In fact it means that he stood
by him as his friend to help him and he poured his power into
him. What a way to die in this world. To have the Lord standing by
us, the Lord protecting us, the Lord doing what He has promised
to honour those who honour Him. We have been placed here at the
best of times. that ever could possibly be in
this world, the best of places that there could ever be in this
world, the best of circumstances that we could ever have in this
world, there is no better time, there is no better place for
us to be here. There is no better time and no
better place to stand for the Gospel of the Lord Jesus. There's
no better time and no better place to suffer whatever God
has ordained for us to suffer. That He might reveal His glory,
that in the midst of sufferings we will know His presence in
a way that the religious world will never ever understand. God stands by. He strengthens
His people. He pours power into them and
He carries them and carries them and carries them all the way. Psalm 73 is a wonderful commentary
on this verse in 17, 417. Psalm 73, verse 23. This is what the Lord says, nevertheless
I am continually with you. You hold me by my right hand. The Lord is continually with
his people and he holds us by his right hand. All of this will
turn out for God's glory. All of it turns out for the good
of his people. So Paul writes to his young friend,
just encouraging him to stand firm, to hold fast, and the one
thing that's needful for Timothy and for all of us is in verse
2 of chapter 4. Preach the word. Proclaim the Lord Jesus. Be ready in season and out of
season. Preach the word. That's what
God's people need in this world. That's what the people who are
outside of God's care and protection manifestly need. Preach the word. That's what God has put us here
for. Just preach the word. Proclaim the glory of the Lord
Jesus. Proclaim what He has done in
your life. Proclaim His presence with you. Proclaim His faithfulness to
you. Amen. Let's pray.